Between 1959 and 1970 Eddie Meador preyed on wide receivers with the brutality of Jack the Ripper—all the while resembling an innocent choirboy. Meador recovered 18 fumbles, blocked 10 kicks and intercepted 46 passes during his Rams career—all team records. Though playing during the tumultuous 1960s and on the most integrated team of the era, the former ROTC cadet managed to fit right in with rabble-rousing teammates—some of whom he led in a famous revolt against management following the firing of Head Coach George Allen. Joshua Neuman speaks with Meador about his storybook career and whether the Rams of his era were too Hollywood for their own good.

#32: Meet the L.A. Rams New Coaching Staff

The Greatest Show on Grass: Los Angeles Rams podcast that celebrates the present-day NFL team against the backdrop of its rich and little-known Hollywood past. Hosted by Los Angeles-based writer, filmmaker, and Rams chronicler Joshua Neuman, The Greatest Show on Grass connects on-the-field analysis with broader conversations about pop culture, politics, gender, and race as it explores a football franchise that’s been as interesting off the field as on it. The Greatest Show on Grass is also a love story between a team and a city. As one prominent sportswriter wrote a half century ago: “The Rams find themselves as much a part of the scenery [of Los Angeles] as the Hollywood Hills, the subject of more newspaper space than the atom bomb, and an object of civic concern second only to smog.” Long before the St. Louis Rams of 1999-2001 were The Greatest Show on Turf, the Los Angeles Rams were The Greatest Show on Grass.